Israel considered on Thursday “misleading” and “biased” a report supported by the UN which states that nearly half a million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are threatened by famine “catastrophic”.
Around 495,000 people in Gaza, a 22% of the population of the Palestinian territory, live “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”according to the Integrated Food Safety Classification Framework (IPC) report published on Tuesday.
The IPC noted in March that greater access to humanitarian aid had made it possible to avoid a feared famine in the Palestinian territory, which has been facing a military offensive and a tight Israeli siege for more than eight months.
Tuesday’s report says another 745,000 people are facing emergency food security situations.
“That report is very misleading. It is biased.”Mainly because “It is based on data that comes from Hamas health institutions”the Palestinian Islamist movement that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, said Israeli government spokesman David Mencer.
Hamas provides data on the conflict, especially on the number of deaths, rejected by Israel but disseminated by international media and humanitarian organizations.
“The accusations of famine (…) in Gaza are baseless,” Mencer added. “Their main objective is, of course, to put pressure on Israel,” he stressed.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said the new report painted “a grim picture of persistent hunger.”
“The increase in food deliveries in the north [de Gaza] and nutrition services contributed to reducing the most serious levels of hunger, but with a still desperate situation”stressed the WFP.
The CPI is an initiative with more than 20 partners, including governments, UN agencies and NGOs. Israel rejected the CPI report in March, saying it contained inaccuracies and dubious sources.
The war broke out on October 7 when Islamist militants killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 in southern Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
The Israeli military estimates that 116 people remain captive in Gaza, 42 of whom have reportedly died. In response, Israel launched an offensive that has already left at least 37,765 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas government in Gaza.
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Source: Gestion
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